Please Don't Go
by Hart-of-Tree-Hill
Summary: What if Summer drove Marissa to the airport instead of Ryan in the season 3 finale? Alternate ending from what happened in the show. Pairings: Major SS, possibly some RM or RT.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Nope, The O.C. isn't mine, wouldn't it be cool though if it was?**

**A/N: Hey guys! So I've sort of been trying to figure out how exactly to write an O.C. fic and I put a lot of thought into what exactly I'd like to do and in the end I finally decided on this. Basically its sort of a "what if" story except with a different ending than what happened in the actual show. So for now all you need to know is Summer was driving Marissa to the airport instead of Ryan in the season 3 finale. How does that actually effect anything? Well that's where my creative licensing comes in. Just so you know I usually like happy endings, take that to mean what you and any questions, requests, input, etc. let me know in a review or a PM. Thanks and of course review!**

"Thanks for driving me to the airport Sum." Marissa said as she watched Newport pass by out the window.

Summer smiled slightly. "Of course Coop, plus it means that I get to get just a little more time with you before you leave me to go hang out on a boat for a year."

Marissa looked at Summer knowingly. "Sum-."

Summer waved her off. "I know, I know, you're not really leaving me and I'll be in Rhode Island anyway but still, I'm gonna miss you."

"Yeah I'll miss you too."

Summer eyed the clock in her car carefully. "So when exactly does your flight leave?"

Marissa shrugged. "Soon?"

Summer rolled her eyes. "Well as long as you aren't being vague."

"Sorry I wasn't really analyzing the details too much, in case you don't remember just a couple of hours ago we were trespassing in the rebuilt model home's pool, I'm lucky that I even made it out the door."

Summer smiled fondly at the memory of just a few hours ago, that was possibly the last time that they would all be together like that. She was honestly just happy that they were all leaving on good terms with each other, especially Ryan and Marissa who had managed to salvage some sort of friendship.

"I'm really happy that we were all able to spend one last day together before everything changes."

Marissa nodded in agreement. "Starting together, ending together." Marissa looked curiously at the headlights behind her that had somehow managed to almost be touching the car's bumper. "Um Summer you might want to go a little bit faster, there's someone riding your tail."

Summer groaned in frustration. "Ugh probably some half-drunk college guy."

The car behind them suddenly accelerated slightly so that it actually touched the bumper of the car.

"Well it looks like you've got the half-drunk part right." Marissa said alarmed as the car continued to shift between going extremely fast and just stopping altogether.

"Should I pull over?" Summer asked somewhat frantically as the swerving car's actions worsened.

Marissa's eyes widened as she saw the car go around half way so they were side by side, and begin to veer into Summer's car. "I don't think that will do any good."

Both of the girls let out an audible yelp as the car made contact with the side of their car. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Summer shouted out the window to the still swerving car.

The man, who was driving the other car's, face wasn't visible as it was covered with a mask of some kind. No response was given as he repeated his earlier actions of ramming his car into the side of Summer's.

"Stop it! Do you want money or something? Just please stop!" Marissa begged frantically as the car continued to swerve into theirs. This question seemed to make the masked driver angrier and with one last jolt of his car he sent Summer's car tumbling down the hillside hitting every bump along the way.

Marissa opened her eyes weakly as she tried to adjust to her position upside down, she was just thankful that Summer had put the top on her car up earlier. She mustered up enough energy to turn her head and view her surroundings, immediately she noticed her best friend's still frame next to her.

Summer lay motionless with her body half thrown to the side and her arm being caught in part of the broken window.

"Sum! Sum, wake up we need to get out of here!" Marissa said as loud as she could, she could feel herself getting dizzier and dizzier as she began to talk, but she had to get herself along with her best friend out of the car.

Summer didn't respond nor did she make any movement whatsoever. Marissa summed up the last bit of energy that she possibly could and pulled her weak and possibly partially broken body out through the car window. Her eyes widened as she saw the gasoline begin to drip towards the engine of the car, she didn't know much about cars but she was smart enough to know that that was not a good thing.

She made one last feeble attempt to get Summer up. "Sum, come on please Sum! You have to wake up, at least long enough to get away from the car. I can't carry you by myself, if I even though that, that was a possibility I would do it."

Marissa was unsure as to why she was sharing all of these details with Summer as she was clearly not in any position to move let alone make any response. She checked quickly to make sure that Summer was still breathing, her heart stopped momentarily when she didn't see Summer's chest rise but let out a sigh when she saw a slight rise in her chest. Shallow breathing was better than no breathing at all.

Marissa let out a cry when she saw a small flame begin in the car's engine. She wasn't going to leave Summer, she couldn't do that. Summer wouldn't do it to her and she wasn't going to do it to Summer."

* * *

><p>"Seth! Seth honey where are you?" Kirsten yelled curious about her son's whereabouts.<p>

Moments later Seth came bounding into the kitchen. "Hey mom, sorry I was busy planning the romantic evening that awaits Summer to tell her that I got into RISD. I think that she's going to be pretty excited to be honest. Now so far all I have is a box but-."

Kirsten cut off her son's rambling. "That's great honey, I just thought that I'd let you know that your father and I are going out for a dinner so you and Summer will have the house to yourself since I think Ryan is out running a few errands. Now I know that you're planning some romantic evening that apparently involves a _box_," Kirsten said looking at her son pointedly to which she received a nod of confirmation, "okay well I'm trusting you so don't do anything to make me regret doing that."

"So what you're saying is it's okay if Summer and I have hot wild sex but parties are off limits? Got it, I think I can work with that." Seth said to receive an icy glare from his mother.

"Seth." Kirsten began in a warning tone.

"It was a joke! Fine mom whatever, but seriously have a good time with dad tonight you two deserve it."

As if on cue Sandy walked in with the phone hanging from his hands with a somber look on his face. "I'm afraid that, that may have to be postponed. Seth, I'm not exactly sure how to tell you this but Julie Cooper just called, there's been an accident."

Seth's body went numb. "A-an accident?" Seth said swallowing hard, barely managing to get those two words out.

Sandy scrubbed his hand over his face. "Summer's car was found upside down at the bottom of a hill just off the road to the airport."

"What about the girls are they okay?" Kirsten asked still in shock.

Sandy shrugged. "Julie called in hysterics she didn't say anything about their condition, just that she thought that we might want to know." Sandy said as he gathered his things together prepared to walk out the door. He looked at Seth and Kirsten who were still standing there motionless and threw his hands up expectantly. "Well are you guys just going to stand there or do you want to get to the hospital?"

This seemed to snap them both out of their daze and they made a dash out the door before Seth stopped abruptly. "What about Ryan?"

"We'll call him from the hospital, we need to go!" Sandy said breathlessly giving Seth another push out the door.

The car ride to the hospital was silent. Sandy and Kirsten were holding each other's hands over the console for comfort, and Seth sat blank faced in the back seat trying to keep his tears from escaping.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Tonight was supposed to be a good memory, he was going to tell Summer that he got into RISD, she was going to be thrilled, and it would be something that they would remember forever and someday tell their children about. It was graduation day for crying out loud.

He had to admit that he did feel a little bad after the fact, that his mind hadn't once gone to what happened to Marissa, or even wondered if she was okay. They were friends after all, maybe not best friends like he was with Ryan or her with Summer, but they still spent like a ton of time together. Granted that had more to do with Ryan and Summer than anything else.

He was quickly drawn out of his very slight guilt when he felt the car jerk to a stop, he looked up to see his parents turned around in their seats looking at him sadly.

"Now before we go in I just want us to remember that it may not be as bad as it seems, they could be just fine and Julie could have been exaggerating. Being negative about anything isn't going to help the situation, now lets go in hoping for the best remembering that we don't know anything yet." Sandy said looking between his wife and his son.

Seth inwardly scoffed, he wanted to believe that it wasn't as bad as it seemed, that they didn't actually know anything yet, but he knew that life wasn't that kind. Something was very wrong, and something was very wrong with his girlfriend and his friend.

Although he knew all of this he simply just nodded at his father's optimistic outlook and weakly opened his car door practically dragging himself out of the car. The longer he could prolong the inevitable the better.

Unfortunately the inevitable was just that, _inevitable_, and the moment that he had been dreading came.

"Oh my god! You guys I don't know how this could have happened!" Julie exclaimed hysterically as she came running over to them.

"Any news?" Kirsten asked hopefully.

Julie shook her head. "I wanted to wait until you guys were here, I couldn't do it by myself."

"Well where's Summer's dad?"

Julie rolled her eyes. "He left for some 'work cruise' almost exactly after dinner ended."

"So you can't get a hold of him at all?"

"No, I mean he obviously needs to know about it but I can't figure out how to get a hold of him." Julie said flustered, the stress of everything clearly beginning to get to her.

Sandy set his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay we'll figure out, but right now we need to figure out what's going on."

Seth gulped nervously as his father waved the doctor over to talk to them.

"Hello it's nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Spencer I've been caring for both of the victims, Summer and Marissa." The doctor said warmly as he stuck out his hand in greeting.

"Sandy Cohen, now what exactly is going on?" Sandy said introducing himself, urging the doctor to get to the point.

The doctor cleared his throat. "Well Marissa got off lucky considering the position the car was in when the ambulance arrived. She has a concussion, no permanent damage brain damage though, a sprained wrist, and a few cuts and bruises."

Julie sighed a sigh of relief but immediately felt a little guilty since they didn't yet know the state of the small loud brunette.

"What about Summer?" Seth interjected wanting the doctor to ease his worries and tell him that she also had no permanent damage and just a few cuts and bruises.

The doctor looked down uncomfortably. "Well Summer's a more complicated state, she was comatose when we arrived and appears to have some kind of damage to the head, she also has several broken bones, including her right leg, a few ribs, and her left arm. The engine of the car was also enflamed upon the arrival of the ambulance, resulting in Summer breathing in a lot of smoke possibly damaging her lungs and contributing to her comatose state."

Seth's eyes widened. "She's going to be okay though right?"

The doctor sighed. "We aren't certain of that yet, we aren't entirely sure what's going on with her brain or what exactly is causing her comatose state. We are running tests though, and should know more by morning."

Seth's eyes bulged as the doctor walked away. "Morning? They expect me to wait until morning to find out whether or not the girl I love, the girl that I could potentially spend the rest of my life with is okay? Well that's just fucking great."

Under normal circumstances Kirsten would have scolded Seth for his vulgar language but she understood. He was hurting, the girl who was undoubtedly the love of his life was in a coma right after graduation and it was still uncertain as to if she would even wake up. So right this moment if Seth wanted to curse until he was blue in the face Kirsten would let him.

Because Summer Roberts, the girl that every person in that room loved, was hurt and they didn't know if she would ever heal.

**A/N: I really hope that you all like it so far. First chapters are always a little iffy so I hope I did well. Just so you all know I am neither an expert on cars, nor medical terms, so if anything was incorrect I apologize and just ask that you go with it. As far as the story itself goes it's going to be a little bit more of a mystery as it goes on. I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I think you guys will like. Thank you so much for reading, and if you feel so inclined to please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This chapter was a little bit hard for me to write for some reason, I just had a really hard time deciding what was coming next but I finally decided on something and will hopefully have the next chapter out within the next week. Read and enjoy! (Also reviews are extremely welcome and helpful!)**

The waiting room doors swung open and in stormed a very much panicked Ryan Atwood. He looked around lost for a moment until he caught sight of the Cohens and the Coopers huddled together in one corner of the waiting room.

"What's going on? All I got was a really vague and hysteric voicemail from Julie." Ryan asked as soon as he made his way over. It took several moments before he received any sort of answer as nobody seemed to want to say the words aloud.

Sandy, being the take charge kind of person that he is, stood up and led Ryan out of hearing distance from the others. This seemed to puzzle Ryan even further.

Ryan furrowed his eyebrows. "Sandy what's going on? Why are we talking over here?"

Sandy sighed. "We're talking over here because I didn't want certain people over there to have to hear this news out loud again." He said sending a quick glance in Seth's direction, whose head was still down as he refused to make any kind of contact with anybody.

Ryan held a firm gaze as he repeated his question one final time. "Sandy, what's going on?" He said enunciating each word.

Sandy nodded, knowing that he had to just get it over with, there was no way that he could possibly take this any worse than Seth did. "Summer and Marissa got into an accident on the way to the airport, the car was found flipped over at the bottom of a hill."

Ryan gulped. "Are they okay?"

"Well Marissa is for the most part, she has a concussion and a few cuts and bruises but nothing major. Summer on the other hand didn't get off as lucky, Summer is in a comatose state and has been since they arrived at the scene. She has several broken bones and some kind of major head injury, they haven't told us much about it so far though."

Ryan took a deep breath, on one hand he was happy that Marissa was okay, they were finally starting to get some solid ground whether that be friendship or something more he wasn't entirely sure, and she had finally gotten her life together.

On the other hand there was a possibility that Summer wouldn't wake up. While it was true that he wasn't as close to her as Seth or Marissa was he still looked at her like a little sister, and if she didn't wake up he didn't know what everyone including himself would do.

He took another glance towards Seth and sighed, he couldn't even imagine what he was going through at the moment. It was strange to see Seth so vulnerable and weak, usually he was the one holding everyone else together. Ryan couldn't even count on both hands the amount of times that Seth had basically saved him.

He began to walk over to his pseudo brother and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey man do you want to step outside for a second, maybe get some fresh air?"

Seth brought his gaze away from his lap for the first time in the last hour. "No, I need to stay here, I need to know what's going on." Seth said maybe a little bit harsher than he had intended as his gaze returned to its original place.

Ryan was about to make another attempt to console Seth but stopped when Kirsten shook her head at him indicating that now wasn't a good time to talk to the usually chatty boy.

After another good twenty minutes of silence a loud voice interrupted their tension filled haze. In through the hospital doors came Taylor Townsend, loud as ever.

"Oh my god! I came as soon as I heard, is everyone okay?" Taylor took Seth's death glare as an answer for itself.

Kirsten, feeling bad that Taylor had received such a cold greeting when absolutely none of this was even remotely her fault, filled her in slightly. "Taylor, everyone is sort of shaken up still. We don't know much about Summer's condition yet, but I'm sure you'll be happy to know that Marissa will be okay."

A slight scoff was heard from Seth after Kirsten gave her summary of the situation. Of course Marissa's okay, Summer is practically laying on her death bed, but as long as Marissa's okay. Seth knew that it wasn't fair to think these thoughts, the accident wasn't Marissa's fault anymore than it was Summer's fault but the whole thing itself didn't seem fair to him.

For the third time within the last hour the hospital doors swung open again, this time revealing two police officers striding towards the waiting room.

"Hello I'm Officer Bradley and this is my partner Officer Mitchell, we have some questions to ask Marissa Cooper regarding the accident that took place earlier this evening, to our understanding she's awake correct?"

Sandy was once again the one to stand up, it only seemed fitting as he had the most experience dealing with officers and legal jargon. "Hi I'm Sandy Cohen, yes Miss. Cooper is awake but as her lawyer may I ask what exactly the questions pertain to?"

The officer cleared his throat. "Well sir, after assessing the accident further we found several clues that strongly suggest that a second party may have been involved, and if that's the case then we have a hit and run on our hands."

All eyes in the room widened as far as they possibly could, who would possibly want to run Summer off the road? Sure Marissa had her beef with a lot of people but not enough to make someone run her off the road, especially if it was Summer driving.

Seth, suddenly angrier than he could ever remember being, spoke up. "Do you have any idea who the jackass was that did it?

Kirsten sighed. "Seth-." She started in a warning tone.

Officer Mitchell stopped her. "No Mrs. Cohen it's okay, you guys have every right to be angry about this especially if it wasn't accident. Unfortunately we have no leads as to who could have possibly done it which is why it's so important that we talk to Miss. Cooper to see if she has any knowledge or clues that could help us. You all are welcome to sit in as we ask her questions, it might make her feel more at ease."

Seth's emotions were on a complete and total rollercoaster this evening, he had gone from being extremely excited to share with Summer that they would get to spend another chapter of their life together, to complete and total shock upon learning about the accident, to sheer sadness at the thought that he could possibly lose her, and finally to a mixture of the last two with anger mixed in as the prominent emotion.

What kind of sick person runs someone off the road and doesn't even check to see if they're okay. Summer had never done anything to anyone, sure she had a tendency to be a bitch and hadn't been the nicest person in her early high school years but she had never done anything that would warrant something like this.

As they followed the officers into Marissa's hospital room, the light haired girl found herself bombarded with hugs by almost everyone in the room.

Marissa didn't crack a smile once, her eyes were fixed in a state of worry and she got out of the hugs as quickly as she could without being rude. "Is there any word on Summer yet?" She asked before saying hi or any other kind of greeting, she just needed to know that her friend was okay as well.

Julie pushed her daughter's hair out of her face and smiled sadly. "I'm afraid not sweetie, they know that her injuries are pretty serious but they aren't exactly sure how serious they are."

Marissa found herself on the verge of tears before she was distracted by two unfamiliar faces in the room. "Who are they?" She asked pointing at the officers.

"Hi Marissa, I'm Officer Bradley and this is Officer Mitchell, we have some questions concerning the accident if you're okay with that."

Marissa nodded. "Of course, but I'm pretty sure that it was no accident."

Officer Mitchell nodded. "That's what we were afraid of. Alright Marissa could you start from the beginning, when you first realized something wasn't right?"

"Well Summer was driving me to the airport and about halfway through the drive we noticed a car that was riding a little too closely to the back of Summer's car so she started going a little faster hoping that she would lose him."

"And then?" The officer gently probed.

Marissa noticed Seth's discomfort as she talked about the accident and sent him a sympathetic smile before continuing. "Well the car just sped up with us, actually a little faster than us since they dinged the back of her car. She tried to speed up again but then they pulled up so they were side by side with us and started ramming their car into ours until… it happened."

"Did you get a look at the person driving the car at all? Any indications if it were male or female?"

Marissa shook her head, her emotions suddenly taking over. "No they were wearing a mask and black gloves, I did notice that they were driving a black range rover though."

Seth scoffed. "Well that narrows it down to just about every rich teenage guy in Newport, hell even Ryan has a range rover."

"Well the bit about the car does help, although by now if they were smart they've probably discarded the vehicle somewhere."

"Do you have any idea as to how long the investigation could take?" Kirsten asked.

Officer Bradley scrubbed a hand over his face. "Well that really depends on the amount of evidence we can find. We'll let you guys know as we begin to know more. Thank you for your time Miss. Cooper." The officer said as he and his partner left.

Marissa kept her gaze fixed on her hands possibly still too in shock to make any contact.

Julie looked at her daughter with concern. "Marissa are you okay?"

Marissa sighed. "Why couldn't it have been me? I mean the only reason Summer was in the car was because of me."

"Oh honey don't say that, if it had been you then Summer would be sitting here feeling terrible that it wasn't her."

Seth inwardly scoffed at the idea, he much preferred that scenario, he didn't wish Marissa any harm, she was one of his best friends, but Summer was the girl he was in love with, most likely the love of his life and he would do anything to make sure she was okay.

Seth was quickly drawn out of his thoughts as Summer and Marissa's doctor entered the room with what looked like a serious expression on his face.

The doctor uncomfortably cleared his throat at the tension in the room. "Hello again, we have acquired more information on Miss. Robert's condition within the last hour. Unfortunately it's as serious as we had feared, she has what's known as a traumatic brain injury. This is a rather broad category but in any case it isn't good, the likelihood that she does come out of her comatose state isn't as high as one might have hoped and even if she were to recover from her comatose state she would still be left with several long term effects."

Seth swallowed hard. "Like what?"

"Well usually seizures, balance problems, fatigue, and most commonly memory loss. More tests are being run on her to see if we missed anything but as of right now things are not looking very good, I'm sorry to be the one to deliver the news. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask."

"Wait." Marissa blurted out ready to ask a question that had been bothering her since she had arrived at the hospital. "Usually when it comes to car accidents isn't the person in the passenger seat the one that gets the most damage?"

"Well generally yes but ultimately it has to do with what parts of the car are hit and its final landing position." The doctor said eyeing the light haired girl carefully.

Marissa smiled politely. "Thank you."

Seth found himself staring off into space, life just wasn't fair. Summer's chances of waking up were slim and even if she did she would never be the same. What if she had lost her memory and couldn't remember him?

He knew that it was extremely presumptuous of him to think these thoughts at such a young age but there wasn't a single doubt in his mind that him and Summer were going to end up together. They had conquered every obstacle so far but this may be one that they couldn't overcome.

"I have to go." Seth mumbled before bounding towards the doors as fast as his legs could move him.

**A/N: I know that it isn't the most exciting chapter and it doesn't have a ton of SS interaction but the next chapter will have more SS content. So far I'm just trying to set the stage. Review and let me know what you think!**


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